Day 14: Female-Helmed Horror Movies For October
Ravenous
Directed by Antonia Bird
1999
1 hour, 40 minutes
I watched it on iTunes.
Right away, “Ravenous” lets you know exactly what you’re in for. It’s 1846-ish, the Mexican-American War. Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is being celebrated for being a war hero, but he can’t stomach sitting through the meat-filled dinner. It reminds him of his bloody time on the battlefield. That time he ended up getting blood dripped into his mouth. Uh-oh. So he goes outside this big to-do and throws up, just before the title “Ravenous” appears in big letters next to his green face. His superior soon declares him not an actual hero (for this and an actual act of cowardice) and sends him to a remote, inconsequential post in California. I adore all of the titles. There’s a fun swoop and speed to them that really indicates the tone of the movie. You get that it will be brutal but with a real wink.
In Antonia Bird’s hands, the presentation of this military outpost as an outright joke aligns perfectly with the tradition of women mocking the absurdity of war, of protesting it. It is a pitch black, derisive comedy that gave me super strong “Dr. Strangelove” vibes. Hell, Jeffrey Jones introduces Private Reich (Neal McDonough) as “The Soldier” and we see him screaming with glee at making himself stand naked in an icy river.
But it’s also a movie about endurance, about how bad things really can get and whether you have the stuff to make it through it, and really whether or not anyone even has much of a choice in the matter. And that’s pretty much the best thing about the horror genre: letting us see someone fight to survive, see someone endure, but with the remove of not having to actually go through it. Sure, you’re not likely to get stuck in a remote outpost with a cannibal but you still feel so much for and with Captain Boyd. It doesn’t hurt that they cast the genius Guy Pearce. Pearce just always commits so fully to whackadoo flicks, and I have a massive crush on him for it. Maybe he’s overcoming the awkwardness of being named Guy? I know that was a common name back in the day but now, that’s got to have been a cross to bear. Man, I’m digressing a lot this weekend.
It was a notoriously troubled shoot, with the original director being fired two weeks into the shoot, the cast refusing to work with the first suggested replacement and then Robert Carlyle (who plays the electric Colonel Ives) recommending Antonia Bird. Carlyle had worked with Bird numerous times before (including “Priest”) and producer David Heyman later called “a force of nature” and in a good way, so hey, you gotta love hearing that a female director was called in to fix this problem film and that Girlfriend knocked it out of the park. She was even classy enough not to throw the previous director under the bus, declaring that it was the studio’s unrealistic working conditions that had been causing problems. Her work here has such a clear vision and even with its extreme style, you don’t lose the humanity of a single character. Even the wife of one of the characters, who barely has any lines, feels so full-fledged.
I just kept calling out, “Yes! Fuck yes!” watching this movie. Every character is so vivid and surprising. And then when Robert Carlyle showed up, I found myself declaring, “Uh-oh, Robert Carlyle. That’s not a good sign.” The whole cast is a delight like that. Big shout out to the great John Spencer of “The West Wing.” This was his last film. I can see myself going back and back to this one. For one, it is sooooo highly quotable. Let me just toss a few, out of context treats for you.
“I seem to remember that, a certain… virility.”
“He was… he was… He was licking me!”
“All you have to do is kill. You have to kill to live.”
“You’re dead. You’re dead – you’re safe now.” It’s almost like when an assassin whispers something like, “It’s already all over.” Shivers.
“Well, isn’t this civilized?” as they sit around, eating a stew made of people.
They quote Benjamin Franklin many times, all quotes about restraint and efficiency, “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.” But in this context, it’s as though they’re making fun of all of that Founding Fathers reverence.
The score by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn is intrusive in the best way. It is so disconcerting and just… noisy. It goes against the typical go-with-the-flow purpose and instead hints at how messed up it’s about to get and continues to get. It’s just thunderous. All composers should see this movie for the perfect example of the OTHER way to go when scoring a film. Nyman’s self-professed preferred form to write for is opera and boy, doesn’t that just say it all.
I’m absolutely in the camp of people who see this as an allegory for coming out of the closet. There are several beats where one character is pressuring another, staring at them longingly and saying things like. “It’s easy really. You just give in.” About consuming other men. But I don’t think that’s in any way a stretch.
It may sound like an oxymoron to say a cannibal movie is beautiful but wow, it really is. That tree sequence is just inspired and rough. Their gorgeous setting of so many trees and mountains and so much of it taking place during daylight hours just adds to the dread. It’s a shame so few horror movies take place during the day. Plenty of awful, terrifying things happen in the sunshine.